The Child’s Eyes

In Grade 10 biology, you may have learned about recessive versus dominant genes; particularly for eye colour, brown is “dominant”, blue is “recessive”, therefore the offspring of a brown-eyed parent and a blue-eyed parent would always have brown eyes. The rules seem to change somewhat when you finally have a child of your own – even though your spouse has brown eyes your child is born with big blues.

Don’t get too attached – many children’s eyes change colour between 6 and 18 months of age.

You can calculate the “odds” of your children having a particular colour of eyes by using the Eye Calculator.

BPA’s Shiny Friend

It seems like everything we do is bad for us. Now that we have switched all of our bottles to glass we thought we could take a moment and be proud that toxic chemicals can’t leech into our child’s food. No such luck!

While we no longer have to worry about Bisphenal A from plastic bottles, we aren’t totally protected because whenever we prepare a can of formula concentrate we are dealing with a product that may contain a questionable dose of the chemical.

As mentioned earlier, Bisphenal A (BPA) is added to plastic products to increase their strength. A lesser known use is as a component of the liner within tin cans. In both instances, when the container is heated the BPA leeches into the food contents. For those not in the know, canned food is heated to kill any bacteria that may be present thereby increasing its shelf life.

What I want to know is – did our switch to glass bottles really make a difference? Is my son getting half the dose of this toxic chemical? How worried should I be?

Need, Desire and Cash

Need is a relative thing these days
It’s bordered on desire
The high-tech world is full of bright shiny things
We think that we really require
-Jimmy Buffett, “Tonight I Just Need My Guitar”

Many of us place great value on material “things” whether we are fully aware or not. This is a decade of debt, while people stretch their credit to the limit trying to buy a bigger house, a fancier TV, a faster computer, a new car – the list goes on. Having been caught up in all of that myself, these days I am pushing a message of living within one’s own means.

I found an article on CreditShout that talks about some interesting survey results regarding people who spend on credit: on average, respondents considered their cell phones, televisions and personal computers to be “necessities” in their lives.

I tell anyone who will listen (which is basically no one) that there are three necessities in day-to-day finances:

1. Shelter
2. Food
3. Transportation

Let me list them again: the only necessary expenses are shelter, food, and transportation – that’s all. Everything else is a luxury and not strictly required to survive and advance. Cell phones may be useful in emergencies, but their absence is unlikely to cause serious harm.

When my wife was unable to work because of her health and need for surgery, we had to tighten our proverbial belts to make sure we could meet expenses with just one paycheque. Although we both enjoyed watching television, we realized right away that dropping cable would save us almost $1000 every year.

Three years later we still don’t have cable even though we can afford to have it again. By cutting out that unneeded luxury we not only saved a lot of money, we found our lives more enriched because we were spending more time together.

Resolutions and Plans

Now that the holidays have passed the cleanup can begin. In our household we are busy digging up boxes from the basement to store away Christmas decorations for another year and fortifying anything packed away in boxes so that mice aren’t able to surprise us with their nests next December.

Overall I would have to say we had a very successful season. Our son started eating rice pudding on December 24 which made for a hilarious home movie. We were able to see my parents and the in-laws all in the same day which is a rare treat for us. These are frugal times but we managed to keep the tree surrounded by presents for all of the children – I don’t think any of them went home disappointed.

Even though most people are back to work, today (January 2) is the last real gasp of “holidays”. Soon we will get back to our regularly-scheduled shuffling about and trying to pick out a living for ourselves. Now is a perfect time to reflect on the year that just passed and the excitement the next twelve months will bring.

We aren’t “resolution” people. January 1^st doesn’t involve a list of sins we wish to cut from our lives. But I do have goals as a parent; basically, these are the journeys I wish to continue moving forward.

My Dad list:

• Take care of my health so I can take care of my family
• Learn a new skill that I can one day pass on to my son
• Take care of our finances so I can both provide for and spend more time with my family
• Take photos for cherishing, but avoid the living behind a camera lens trap
• Above all, put my family before all else

Get Your Children Excited for Santa

Christmas is just around the corner!  The job may already be done for you, but there are a lot of things parents can do to help get their children in the Christmas spirit and excited for Santa’s visit.

Put Up the Christmas Tree
Many families put up their Christmas trees very early in December.  This is a great opportunity to bond with children and involve them in the holiday process.  Foster creativity by letting them put ornaments in unconventional places; an unused vase filled with shiny Christmas balls makes an eye-catching centrepiece for the table.

Start an Advent Calendar
Those chocolate advent calender, like so many other other aspects of the season, takes a christian tradition (in this case the days of advent) and mass-commercializes it down to a waxy chocolate treat.  Arguments aside, opening a new chocolate decoration every day in the lead-up to Christmas helps to build anticipation and teach young children about the passage of time.

Presents are Surprises
In my family, whenever we give gifts to other people we keep them a surprise until the time they are opened. This was always one of the most fun aspects of the holidays, to me.  When you’ve picked a present that you know the other person is really going to love, it’s almost as unbearable to not give it to them early as it is for them wondering what you might have thought of.

Some families don’t do the surprise presents – sometimes a gift giver is with the recipient when they make or buy their present!  That is a great way to bond, too.  There is no wrong way to celebrate the holidays, and no wrong way to bond with our loved ones.  The priceless look on a child’s (or adult’s!) face when they open a gift they love but weren’t expecting can really make the surprise worthwhile.

Sing Songs
Even if you aren’t the greatest vocalist in the world, encourage song in your household.  Children connect to music on many levels, and familiar Christmas songs build excitement for the big day as well as general good feelings. This works all year round, too!

Enjoy Each Other’s Company
This time of year is great for spending time with loved ones.  There are more statutory holidays and often workplace-provided days off.  Rather than using the free time to catch up on housework or shop for more presents, use it to spend time with the kids.  It’s so easy to get lost in the moment that we don’t always take the time we should with the people who give us the drive to keep doing all that we do.  Drop everything and play with the baby.  There is nothing so important that it can’t wait.